External Advisory Board

Ray Offenheiser

Raymond C. Offenheiser leads the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) in its mission to promote human development and dignity among people worldwide. He also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame, teaching graduate and undergraduate students in a course on the foundations of sustainable development. Offenheiser is a member of the Keough School’s Leadership Council.

Offenheiser oversees and develops NDIGD’s academic, research, and public policy activities, as well as its strategy for long-term growth. He also identifies and cultivates critical, strategic partnerships between NDIGD and companies, federal agencies, foundations, and private philanthropists. Additionally, he represents NDIGD at local, national, and international events.

A widely known nonprofit leader and innovator with a broad range of international development experience in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Offenheiser served as president of Oxfam America for 20 years. Under his leadership, the agency grew eightfold and repositioned itself in the United States as an influential voice on international development, human rights and governance, humanitarianism, and foreign assistance.

Prior to joining Oxfam, Offenheiser represented the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh and the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America. He has directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in Brazil and Colombia, and he has worked for Save the Children Federation in Mexico. At the 2012 G20 Summit, he was appointed by the Obama administration to represent civil society interests on the leadership council of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa.

Offenheiser has served as honorary president of Wetlands International, and he was a co-founder of the ONE Campaign, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and the Food Policy Action Network. He has served on the advisory boards of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, the World Agricultural Forum, the Gates Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Cornell University.

A 1971 graduate of Notre Dame, Offenheiser also holds a master’s degree in development sociology from Cornell University. He is a longstanding member of the Advisory Board of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Offenheiser has been a frequent commentator with U.S. and international media.

Under Offenheiser's leadership, Oxfam America more than quintupled in size and repositioned itself in the U.S. as a leading voice on international development and global trade. Offenheiser has worked his entire career in the nonprofit sector. He brings more than 30 years of international development experience as a field programmer, grant maker, and executive in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. Prior to joining Oxfam America, he served as the Ford Foundation Representative in Bangladesh and in a similar role in the Andean and Southern Cone Region of South America. He has also directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador and worked for Save the Children Federation in Mexico.

Offenheiser serves as a resource and frequent commentator in the media on such issues as foreign aid, global poverty, humanitarian relief, international agriculture, human rights, climate change, global trade policies, and corporate social responsibility. In addition his membership on the board of Oxfam America and Oxfam International, he has also served on boards and working groups with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, the World Agricultural Forum, the Gates Foundation, Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and the Kellogg Center at the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow.